Crashing during Games

My computer started crashing very frequently a few weeks ago. It only crashed when i tried to play hardcore 3D games. It freezes every few 30 minutes or so when I try to play "Pirates!". But It freezes even more often during the "sims 2". Most of all, it freezes EVEN more often when playing "Freedom Fighters". During Freedom Fighters it usually crashes before the game even starts. I tried reinstalling the drivers for my graphics card, but i think that the problem might be deeper, or maybe from overheating, but i have 3 fans, i think. I also have windows XP. When it crashes, it does two different things, thge monitor goes black, you can still hear the audio, but the monitor power button flashes as if the computer was on standby mode. The other thing that happens is that the graphics card fails, and the graphics divide up rectangles, i minimize it, and for a brief second i can see the image of the game that when it crashed, thats how it looked. Thanks for helping!

What is the make & model of computer? Graphics Card? etc.?

Is this an old computer? Was it working OK for a long time?

Any coinciding issues?

What Operating System?

Look in your Event Viewer:
Start/Run/ eventvwr

Open the application as well as system tab & report any red X errors that might appear relevant.

Do you have another Graphics Card that you can test?

I found many red X's, two many to count, I also found a ton of warnings. but what was found was that a red x for ati smart. I have a Radeon 9800 Series.
this is the description of the event:


The description for Event ID ( 105 ) in Source ( ATI Smart ) cannot be found. The local computer may not have the necessary registry information or message DLL files to display messages from a remote computer. You may be able to use the /AUXSOURCE= flag to retrieve this description; see Help and Support for details. The following information is part of the event: The event log file is corrupt..

The other events all had a lot to do with application hangs.
I have windows xp home edition.

Do you have problems outside of high end games?

Do you have any temperature sensors?

Are you familiar with opening the case?

If so; it might be interesting to run with it open to detect any difference as well as check all the fans & any noticable heat issues.

Yesterday, before you replied, my brother suggested opening the case to see if it was overheating. I am now running my computer open-cased, to see if overheating is the problem. My computer has been running perfectly since, but not enough to be able to tell if overheating is the main problem.

My computers graphics card fails once and a while when i am playing 3-D games, but the screen goes black and the monitor power button flashes on and off, i have the case opened. Please help!

what type of motherboard do you have

I have a KT600 DRAGON Ultra

Do you have another graphics card that you can try?

Do you still get the same ATI errors?
What do the Application Hangs refer to?

If you want more detailed errors you can do the following (although I'd guess that it will just reiterate the ATI).


Go to start | search (type in) .dmp
Note the location of your latest .dmp file.

Then:

1) Download and install the
Debugging Tools from Microsoft
2) Download and install this
debugwiz
3) Open the Wiz & Browse to, or paste in the path to, your latest .dmp file.
4) After the Wiz creates a Text document attach it back to this thread.

try putting your graphics card to 4x mode in bios. it wont make much of a performance loss. thats what i did